


Blooming

by mayeevee



Category: Naruto
Genre: All characters need a hug, And she gets it, Angst, BAMF Haruno Sakura, BAMF Uchiha Itachi, BAMF Uchiha Shisui, F/M, Haruno Sakura Has Issues, Haruno Sakura Needs a Hug, Haruno Sakura has self-Esteem Issues, Haruno Sakura is So Done, Haruno Sakura needs help, Haruno Sakura-centric, It's explained in the story, Mokuton User Haruno Sakura, No Uchiha Massacre, Oblivious Haruno Sakura, Protective Haruno Sakura, Sakura ain't taking shit no more, Slightly Depressed Haruno Sakura, Slow Burn, Strong Haruno Sakura, The Author has no idea what she's doing, Uchiha Itachi Needs a Hug, but later on its going down, ish, new power, not a lot at first, the calm before the storm, wood release
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-13
Updated: 2021-02-01
Packaged: 2021-03-09 22:54:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 12,827
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27544159
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mayeevee/pseuds/mayeevee
Summary: It was simple, she was done being the weak link. Now, armed with a power she didn't know the origins of, Sakura will take the world by storm as she breaks down all the barriers keeping her from standing side by side with her new family. She was like any other bud, she just needed nurturing for her to bloom.Crossposted on FFnetTags to be added
Relationships: Haruno Sakura & Hatake Kakashi, Haruno Sakura & Tsunade, Haruno Sakura & Uchiha Itachi, Haruno Sakura & Uchiha Sasuke, Haruno Sakura & Uchiha Sasuke & Uzumaki Naruto, Haruno Sakura & Uchiha Shisui, Haruno Sakura & Uzumaki Naruto, Haruno Sakura & Yamato | Tenzou, Haruno Sakura/Uchiha Itachi
Comments: 37
Kudos: 270





	1. Trying and Training

Sakura scowled as she threw her a kunai towards the target in front of her, only managing to hit the outer white ring even at the mere 15-foot distance that she had given herself, something that should have been child’s play for her by now. 

Huffing, she gritted her teeth as she grabbed another kunai, observing the sharp object while trying to calculate a better trajectory in her head in order to fully hit the bullseye. That was the thing though, she had a near perfect formula in her head on how exactly to hit the bullseye, she just couldn’t fully implement that technique into her underused muscles. 

Not for the first time she wished she had someone here to give her some pointers, most of the bases for her calculations came from books, many of which were usually directed at people stronger and/or taller than her, the academy books didn’t help as they merely talked about proper kunai maintenance and placement of targets, the use of actual techniques were usually left to the teachings of the sensei the academy student or genin would be under.

Kakashi, who was supposed to be said sensei, was far too busy with teaching Sasuke anything and everything that he knew. While that was supposed to be the case for both her and Naruto as well, their teacher told them with his ever-fake cheer that their natures would make it harder for them to learn Kakashi’s style of fighting. Sakura was not fast enough and tended to rely on brute strength, something that he should have told her to work on but noooo. Naruto relied on his inhumanely large chakra reserves, so Kakashi should have taught him better chakra control but again, nooo.

Sakura was earth and water nature, and while having two natures was uncommon in a genin, the mixture was common enough in terms of having two that she was easily overlooked by Kakashi. Naruto had wind nature, not quite as common but again fairly overseeable. Sasuke though, the young genius and seemingly turning out to be a little Kakashi in the making, just had to get not only two chakra natures, but fire and lightning, the same ones that Kakashi was also prevalent in. 

It was almost as if nature itself was pushing Sasuke towards Kakashi and making it so that Kakashi overlooked his other two students with nothing more than a you guys can figure it out. 

He seemed to take advantage of the fact that she was a paper shinobi, and so he merely threw water and earth scrolled justu with a you can do it better than I could, not my element. 

Yes, not like he had any other elemental jutsus under his belt, what with the sharingan in his disposal. 

Which was another excuse to focus his attention on Sasuke, the sharningan. You would think that Sasuke was in dire need of a teacher to control his kekei genkai what with the urgency Kakshi showed in disclosing everything he knew of the eye technique, as if he knew better than the freaking clan the kekei genkai originated from. 

She had believed that she at least had the support of Naruto, what with him being kicked to the gutter alongside her. 

But no, her lovable yet infuriatingly lucky blonde friend managed to get tutelage under a sannin. Jiraiya, seeming to have developed a soft spot for the knuckleheaded ninja, decided to extend his stay in Konoha in order to teach his little new disciple his own set of skills. 

This has all happened in their first two weeks after graduation, and just when Sakura felt that hope was all but lost, she found a new light. 

That light came in the form of Tsunade, who due to the Third Hokage’s failing health, finally came back in order to become the Fifth Hokage. 

The minute she had heard this, Sakura had scrunched up all the courage and recklessness that she had managed to acquire from being in close proximity to a certain knuckleheaded blonde, and had marched towards the office with a sense of bravo that she in no way truly possessed. She had practically demanded the new fifth Hokage to take her under her wings, and after a few stress inducing questions that had most likely shaved a considerable amount of years from her life, she said yes.

“You have a fire in you Haruno Sakura, a fire that doesn’t seem easily extinguishable. I would like to be responsible of making that fire burn.” 

Tsunade had said this with a certain glint in her eye, one which both excited and terrified the young genin. 

Something both of them had overlooked though, and something which Sakura should have seen coming with her seemingly failing luck, was the fact that Tsunade was a Hokage, a newly integrated one at that. The blonde barely had time to breathe, much less teach an inexperienced genin freshly out of the Academy, 

Sakura made do though, she got herself into this hole, and if she had to, she would dig herself deeper in it. So, she diligently read all of the medical scrolls that Tsunade gave her alongside the ones that Kakashi had uncaringly tossed at her direction. She started running and reading and training and fighting and listening because that was all she could do to not give up and give it a rest. 

Two months later found her here, a little more muscle in her arms, an aim that still needed help but that was miles better than when she had first left the Academy (how she had managed to graduate with such a deplorable aim was beyond her, but seeing as Naruto graduated without even fully mastering more than one of the three basics, she should not really be so surprised.)

Sakura was by no means the strongest, and she still had miles to run before even coming close to catching up with her teammates, whose own tutorships made them have a cliff high edge on her, but Sakura was nothing if not flexible, and she would take anything that was given to her. 

That was how she was here, in a training field usually designated to jounin or higher. Tsunade, looking more tired than she had in years, had given her the same apologetic smile that Sakura had become accustomed to in the months of tutorship under the strong blonde. Tsunade barely had time to give Sakura some new scrolls filled with techniques and strategies in healing jutsus along with another book on herbs and their different properties before being pulled into an impromptu meeting with the rest of the council. 

The young genin had resigned herself to yet another day in the library, before she was intercepted by Shizune. 

The black haired jounin merely smiled a sad smile at her junior before telling Sakura some of the greatest news she had in the past months. Tsunade had been able to grant her access to the private training fields usually reserved for jounin or higher. It was a sort of apology gift that the blonde had been able to gift her, something that was usually not done but that she had managed to pull off with her privilege as Hokage. 

Shizune had grabbed her hand, her palm burning slightly as a symbol formed on her palm, a circle with an x above it, kanji written in small lettering around the seal. 

That is how Sakura ended up here, alone but with a little more freedom in terms of training. Living in an apartment made it so that training usually consisted of running laps around the village and practicing aiming inside the small apartment complex, praying that she didn’t hit something breakable. Using weapons was prohibited inside of the village unless an emergency came up, civilians being harmed from a stray kunai or any other weapon was a terrible offense. 

Though even with this new freedom, Sakura still found herself wishing for more. Tsunade-shishou was an amazing person, and a mentor she was proud of. Nobody else in the village except for Shizune could claim that they were in the mentorship of the fifth Hokage and the greatest healer known to this world. 

Though, what use did all of that have if she couldn’t even throw a kunai right?

Sighing, Sakura sat down roughly on her behind while looking at her hands. Green flickered into view before becoming a pale glow in her palms, cool energy soon covering the whole of her hand while she felt her energy slowly but noticeably slip away. She had managed to get a hang of healing about a month ago, something that had greatly surprised Tsunade as it had only taken her two weeks to bring the fish back to life, something that not even Tsunade herself had managed to accomplish. 

____________

“That is some great control you have there Sakura, it might just become better than my own before you reach your late teens if you keep it up.” Tsunade had praised, pride in her eyes as she stared at the flailing fish on the table in front of the young genin. 

Sakura could do nothing more than give her new mentor a bright smile, her own pride forming in her chest as she looked down at the fish with a bright glow in her viridian eye. She had done it! She beat Tsunade-shishou’s record in healing and had managed to bring the fish alive in a mere two weeks of training.

Happy tears forming in her eyes, Sakura jumped into Tsunade’s arms as she cried in happiness. She was not worthless after all; she had a chance.

\-------------------------

Smiling at the memory, Sakura sighed as she closed her eyes. She had read in a scroll that chakra control could be improved with meditation. The size of your capacity could also grow if you continued to practice. Feeling the chakra around her, Sakura frowned at the familiar feeling of want inside of her. 

Tentatively, she did the same thing she always did when she meditated when in close proximity with plant life, she let her chakra out. 

Usually, scrolls talked about looking at the way your chakra flowed inside of your body and helping your control by moving chakra inside of your reserves and in that way getting better at controlling it along with making the reserves bigger. 

Sakura had tried this technique at first, but soon she found herself unable to take her attention away from the chakra all around her. 

Meditating made it so that she could feel the faint chakra in the plants and trees all around her. For some reason it felt almost as if....as if it was calling out to her. 

As time passed, she had tentatively brought her chakra out of her body and into the world around her, the experience was nerve-wracking, and not something she had ever done before. It was almost as if a part of her was leaving her body, as if her spirit was leaving her body and staying in the in-between. 

Her chakra found coverage in the grass around her, and she had never felt more at ease in her life. 

It was as if the small energy around her was soothing her, pulling her into a dance as it pulled her chakra deeper into its roots, its own chakra mixing with hers to the point where she no longer knew where her chakra started, and its chakra ended. 

Suddenly, while she is relaxing in the way that her chakra blanketed across the grass, its own chakra pulling her in a warm embrace as if afraid she would leave, Sakura felt a pull. 

The pull caused her to push her chakra further, as the pull brought her chakra to a tree not too far away from her. All her chakra suddenly concentrated on the tree, as it pushed her chakra further into its branches until her chakra made contact with foreign chakra. 

Sakura’s eyes snapped open as she turned towards the tree, wide with fear before forcing herself to calm down. This was the jounin training grounds, and while she had reserved this particular ground for herself, it was not too uncommon for some jounin to not bother with reservations and simply go to their preferred training grounds. 

Biting her lip, Sakura felt the intruding chakra seeming to try and feel out her own chakra. Something that always amazed her, and a secret she kept from everyone but Tsunade herself, was the way she was able to feel other’s emotions with her chakra. 

It was a gift she had learned when experimenting with her chakra control, she always felt that her chakra felt more natural outside of her body rather than inside, and when she was close to any life forms she could always interpret their emotions based on how their chakra felt, be it human or animal. 

She used that skill now to see that the person before her was not hostile, rather their chakra was that of a calm river, calm and flowing if not a bit curious, of what she was unsure. 

Suddenly she felt her chakra slowly creeping up the person’s body, and she knew this to not only be rather inapposite, but also something that not many were able to accomplish without direct contact. Hence, she quickly called back her chakra, inwardly lecturing herself for her foolishness. 

Something that has always bothered Sakura since she was but an Academy student, was just how free willed her chakra was, much like it had its own mind. She kept that secret inside of herself, much like the existence of her Inner, for she knew that such knowledge would cause others to become wary of her mental state. 

Shaking away her thoughts, Sakura bit her lip as she managed to choke out a few words to the unwelcomed guest in her temporary training grounds. “Hello jounin-san, I am sorry to say this training ground is currently under my usage.”

“If I am not mistaken, you are a genin. How is it that you are here in this training grounds?” She heard a deep baritone voice suddenly say. Sakura blinked; how did this man know of her current status? While at times of peace it was rare for children to move up in ranks rapidly, it wasn’t exactly unheard of. Sakura resisted the urge to play with her fingers, she needed to stay calm in the face of this man. As the successor of Sanning Tsunade, she must not be a disgrace to her teacher. 

“That is…I have special permission from my shishou in order to train in this training grounds, if needed I can show you the mark that shows such.” Sakura responded, but she berated herself for her initial stutter. It seems like she could not help but show some of her nervousness. 

“Hn.” The man suddenly said, and from the tree jumped what she could only describe as a prettier more grown up Sasuke. No, rather while the resemblance was there, this man held a colder, seemingly stronger aurora that told the world here I am, don’t mess with me. She couldn’t help but remember the man from her many visits to the Uchiha home, both by her own accord while she still held Sasuke in her heart, and by invitation of the younger Uchiha in show of his mom’s nagging to meet his teammates. 

As far as she knew, the older Uchiha brother had needed to go on a long term mission not so long ago, if Sasuke’s whining could be trusted. So, she had only met him once or twice in the four months that she had been part of Team 7, she had also rarely seen him while she and Sasuke were in the Academy, again most likely caused by his busy mission schedule. 

That didn’t stop her from burning his face into memory, at first in an effort to make a good impression to her future bother-in-law, but now rather in a sort of benign admiration for his accomplishments. Even Tsunade, who could not stand the ‘arrogant and self-important Uchiha bunch’ as she said it, could not help but admit the oldest of the Uchiha brothers was a rare genius not likely to be seen again in the generations to come. 

Now here she was, in the presence of what most likely could be said to be the strongest of his generation, and Sakura felt the need to run away and not look back. Still, she held strong as she stood her ground, not looking at the Uchiha in the eye for she had been deeply ingrained on what foolishness such an act was, but rather looking at his chest, a safe in between. 

“If Uchiha-san has nothing else to say, I must get back to training.” Sakura said, though she hoped he got the hint and freaking left her alone. Her blood-pressure had enough from Tsunade’s rare but deadly training exercises, and she wasn’t really in the mind to keep such a high-status person company. 

“What was that just now, that you did with your chakra.” She suddenly heard him say, and Sakura wanted to weep out to the sky why it was that he hasn’t left by now. She was merely a genin, true she was under the tutorship of the Hokage, but surely the pride of the generation wouldn’t care for that fact. 

Biting back her screams of anguish, Sakura replied as politely as she could with a hint of finality. “I have no idea what you are insinuating Uchiha-san…” Sakura was really unsure of what he meant, didn’t sensors usually have that sort of chakra manipulation? What was so weird about how she herself senses other people.

“Hn, you were able to push your chakra though the network of plants around you, not only that but you invaded my own chakra network without even coming in contact with me.” Sakura was pretty sure this was the most the other Uchiha has ever spoken to her, well actually this was the first time he had ever truly spoken to her personally, outside of a polite “Welcome”.

Now here she was, stuck in the gaze of the Uchiha as he barraged her with questions, she wasn’t entirely comfortable with sharing. She didn’t want to find herself in the other side of a Uchiha genjutsu torture in order to find out all her secrets though, which to be fair was highly unlikely to actually happen, but again she was in an uncomfortable position right now and her brain was going berserk in ways that things could go worse. 

Finally, Sakura decided to suck it up and answer the Uchiha with as much detail as she could. The better she answered, the sooner he left her alone, at least that’s what she hoped. 

“I merely just had my chakra intermix with the plants own chakra. Can’t everyone do that?” True she hasn’t really read any books of such an act, but Sakura had thought that it was merely just one of those duh things, kind of like how you are able to push chakra through a human. True, in order not to disturb the other person’s chakra network, such an act was highly unusual and only those with medical chakra or excellent chakra control could do such an act, but other than that Sakura believed that it was merely commonplace. 

The man before her though, knew for a fact that it was not so. Kneeling down to the ground, he placed his chakra on the plant before him. He pushed some of his own chakra into the plants before him, much like what Sakura had done. Though, unlike how Sakura’s own chakra had done nothing, the grass shriveled and wilted when coming in contact with Itachi’s chakra. 

Sakura narrowed her eyes, her chakra seeming on its own volition coming out of her system and going towards the plants that the Uchiha had killed. She felt through its overloaded chakra, her own chakra going through it and seeming to trough the simplistic chakra network of the plants, and, much to her own shock and the silent shock of Itachi, the plant seemed to liven up, some of its greenness coming back. 

Sakura stayed slack-jawed, never having actually done that in all her years of chakra manipulation. But to be fair, she had never thought of having her chakra go into dead plant life. 

She looked back at Itachi, now staring directly at his slightly widened eyes, her past caution gone by this discovery. Itachi furrowed his brows, looking at the plants that seemed to liven up after he had burned them with chakra, all in the act of this genin’s own chakra. Hmmm. 

“Will you be here tomorrow?” Itachi asked, Sakura’s eyes widened before she nodded her head, speechless. “I will talk with the Hokage about this, meet me here tomorrow.” With those final words, Itachi flickered away. 

Well she did it now, she officially chewed off more than she could bite. ‘You know, the more you find yourself I these types of situations, the more I think that you don’t have any gods looking after you Outer-chan.’

‘Sometimes I wonder why exactly I still try anymore.’ While Sakura was not at all bothered by her mentor getting to know her newly found out abilities, but the fact that a certain Uchiha wanted to meet with her tomorrow was not something that she really wanted to deal with. She had sworn off the Uchiha clan, especially after her nth disgrace by the hands of herself in an effort to please one Uchiha Sasuke. She swore to herself that she would instead work towards bettering herself, no more fangirl Sakura who only knew how to look pretty and act like the damsel in distress. 

The memory of the first month into Genin year, where she was forced to watch in the background while her teammates fought for their lives was something that would forever be imprinted in her mind. The Land of Waves will forever be a memory that would push Sakura forward, and so she was not keen on catching any unwanted attention until she at least managed to make a name for herself other than, ‘the Hokage’s new apprentice’ or ‘that girl form Team 7’.

Going through her options, Sakura thought about going to see her shishou and clearing up any misunderstandings that would probably arise, but figured that Uchiha-san was already there and making a case for himself. Hence, she made a note to go tomorrow in the morning, like she usually did to pick up any training scrolls that Tsunade might have. 

Nodding her head, Sakura sighed as she looked back at the target she was practicing on, before looking up at the sky. It was close to nighttime already, and while the training ground was a private one, she didn’t really want to overwork herself too much. If she overdid it, she would do more harm than good, and she was feeling quite a bit tired at the moment. 

Figuring it was high time to head home, Sakura quickly gathered all of her stuff, though before leaving the training ground she shot one last look at the plant life she had miraculously saved. Biting her inner cheek, Sakura shook her head as she turned around and left the training ground. 

On her way home, she suddenly thought about her choice of clothing, the past her had bought a total of 3 red qipao dresses, something that she now knew was not exactly the best at combat. While the dress was form fitting, it left too much room for the flaps to be tugged by branches and the likes. The red also really clashed with her pink hair, something that had taken her a while to understand, and it was like a red-light wanting others to know her location, completely useless in cases were staying unseen was the objective. 

Making up her mind, Sakura went towards one of the shinobi clothe stores, that was miraculously open even though it was evening already. Heading inside, Sakura browsed around, not exactly finding anything that caught her eye. 

That was until she headed more towards the back of the shop, where she hit bullseye. 

Maybe it was because of the feat she had managed to pull off today, but the sight of these clothes made something inside of her bloom. 

The shirt was a long sleeved dark green shirt that matched nicely with her eyes, the pants were a darker green looking almost black. Upon closer inspection, she saw that there were hidden compartments in the shirt and pants. Smiling, Sakura quickly brought over the shopkeeper and asked for three sets of them, while the material wasn’t exactly cheap, coming from a merchant family, Sakura would be able to resize the clothes to fit her for some time, hence she wasn’t exactly mad about buying such nice clothing. 

Bidding the shopkeeper a good night, Sakura had barely managed to leave when the shop was closing. Taking her goods, Sakura quickly took to the rooftops as she headed to her apartment. 

Landing in front of her apartment door, Sakura opened the door quickly before going inside the apartment, muttering out an “I’m home”, were silence only followed. 

In front of her, on a little desk by the door, Sakura was met with the picture of a couple smiling brightly, in between them they were holding a pink haired baby. Now this fact would not be so odd, if it weren’t for the fact that neither of the couple shared the baby’s unique gene. The male had dark brown hair and bright blue eyes, while the woman had light blonde hair and dark purple eyes. Neither parent looked anything like the young baby, yet they still managed to birth the anomaly. 

Her mother had time and time again explained to Sakura that she had gotten her genes form her great-great-grandmother, who she looked exactly alike. This was said in an effort to comfort the crying child that had just been bullied by some less than upstanding children, jeering about the fact that Sakura looked nothing like her parents and how weird her hair was and what big of a forehead she had and how she was different. 

Her parents loved her though, for as long as they had been alive, they never stopped showing their true love for her. 

Tears prickling at her eyes, Sakura blinked them away as she walked forward inside the small apartment, going inside her room and taking out a carefully kept sewing kit. It had been her mother’s, and Sakura prided herself in having been able to catch up to the woman’s talent by the age of 10. 

She had personally sewed the Haruno clan circle in her own qipao when she had gotten them. 

Taking out the needle and thread, Sakura lost herself in the art of sewing. Letting all her doubts and worries leave her as she created intricate patterns here and there. 

When she was done, it was already close to midnight, but Sakura was so happy with her work that she didn’t even care. The first shirt had a variety of vines bordering the bottom of the shirt and the sleeves, with vines going down the sides of the pants. The vines were a golden color, which complimented the green nicely, and the Haruno circle was proudly placed in the back. 

One another shirt, she had sewn her given name, the cherry blossom, also in golden thread with tree branches on the left side. What looked like falling petals in the pant legs. 

Finally, in the final one she created a bunch of irises together with petals fluttering about, the symbol of irises also going down the pant legs. For some reason, Sakura always felt a kinship with this type of flower, more so than even her birthname flower the Cherry Blossom. If someone were to ask what Sakura’s favorite flower would be, they would be amuse to know that the white Iris is her favorite. 

Now that she finished with her touchups, Sakura decided it was prime time to sleep. She had a long day tomorrow, what with Tusnade most likely finding out that she held some sort of gift, but Sakura couldn’t hope to imagine how exactly she would react to it, hopefully not too severe, seeing as that it was merely a useless gift such as bringing back some plants. 

With those thoughts Sakura quickly put everything away, making sure to carefully hang her new clothes on her closet. Once that was done, she got comfy on her twin-size bed, her white fluffy pillow becoming her heaven after a long day of training. 

Pulling her purple comforter in a tight embrace, Sakura smiled as she looked towards her nightstand, where another picture was placed, this one not just holding her and her parents, but also a younger looking teen who had dark blue hair and light blue eyes. 

“Good night okaa-san, outo-san, Aneki.” Sakura murmured, as her eyes slowly closed, and she succumbed to sleep. 

Some meanings of the Japanese words

Shishou: teacher of sorts, master, or exemplar (in this case teacher)

-san: an respectful honorific, practically meaning Ms. Or Mr. 

Okaa-san: Mother

Outo-san: Father

Aneki: Older Sister


	2. Mysteries

Mayeevee: Welp here is the new chapter! Hope you guys enjoy.

A little girl was sitting amongst the flowers in the field, happily caressing their soft petals as her still underdeveloped chakra sparked at her fingertips here and there, as if trying to deepen her connection with the flowers.

The flowers themselves were overjoyed at the connection the still growing chakra permitted, this she knew somewhere deep within her soul. The flowers danced as the wind blew by, their swaying selves making a rustling sort of sounds that sounded much like a song.

The child giggled, poking the white flower in front of her, a white Iris.

Suddenly, though, the flowers started to wither. One by one they turned into a deadly brown color that showed their life essence leaving them slowly. She stood up, the world spinning around her as the sound of a beeping machine was heard all around her. The beeping of a heart monitor.

Beep… Beep… Beep… Beep…

It made continuous slow noises, each sound causing her own heart to thump erratically. Soon the noise was slowing.

Beep…..beep….beep

Then, the continuous sound of a flatline…

Sakura's world went black.

"Wake up my sweet Spring child".

* * *

Snapping awake, Sakura gasped, her breathing coming out erratic as if the very act of filling her lungs with oxygen was laborious.

Sakura grasped at her hair, pulling it in an effort to keep herself grounded. Cold sweat soaked her clothes and her blankets as she touched her face, feeling the tears streaming down her eyes as she muffled a sob. Biting her lip until she could taste blood, Sakura rubbed her arms lightly as she shakily got up and walked towards the shower.

Standing under the steaming water, she could just barely catch a hold of her emotions as she let out a shaky breath.

You're okay Sakura, she told herself, you can get through this.

'There's some leftover dango in the fridge, I believe that it's calling out to us.'

Inner informed Sakura, voice soft as Sakura felt an almost caressing feeling in her mind. She smiled, happy for the support as she grabbed the shampoo and proceeded to wash the nightmare away.

When she got out of the shower, she quickly got changed into one of her new training uniforms. Deciding on the Iris for today, Sakura rubbed at her swollen eyes as she frowned at the mirror.

"Today is going to be okay." She said to herself in the mirror, nodding her head as she grabbed a brush. Brushing her hair, she the proceeded to braid it into two braids. Happy with her work, she went towards her kitchen, wanting to indulge herself in some extra dango for today.

* * *

Sakura was standing in front of Tsunade, a nervous expression on her face as her mentor looked back at her, a frown slightly visible on her face.

"So, you had no idea that the way that your chakra acted was in any way special?" Tsunade asked, her voice clearly showing her disbelief as she stared at her young apprentice.

Sakura felt a ping of sorrow in her heart, Tsunade didn't trust her.

'Of course she doesn't idiot, what sort of fool doesn't figure out when their chakra acts differently than normal' Sakura berated herself, though the hurt was still there.

Tsunade must have seen something on her face, as she gave Sakura a gentle look. One filled with so much caring that Sakura had to swallow and blink back tears from streaming down her eyes again today.

Sakura felt so frustrated at the world, she was supposed to be the ordinary one, small little Sakura surrounded by anomalies. Yet it seemed like her anomaly was the only one cast into question.

Sasuke she understood, sharingan was not exactly common, but there was a whole clan where some could use it.

Then there was Naruto, with his weird high levels of chakra that seemed absolutely absurd in the hands of a kid, what more that flash of orange when they were in the land of waves. Why wasn't he questioned over his own weirdness.

She shook her head, no use trying to look down the rabbit hole, nothing good came from trying to overthink on things, especially when the answer might just be one that led to her early death.

Focusing back on Tsunade, Sakura breathed out as she came clean to her shishou. "I never thought to look into this, ever since I was little I could sometimes run my chakra though plant life, so I never found it strange. It was only yesterday when I found out I could slightly, well, heal plants. I am as much in a loss as you are shishou, please believe me." Sakura pleaded, an honest expression on her face as desperation clawed at her mind.

This couldn't be happening to her, what if she was charged with deceiving the Hokage? What if she was put under lock and key and experimented on until they found out what sort of ability she might possess.

Sakura had heard whispers, rumors of children with unusual abilities being spirited away and never heard of again, mostly children who didn't come from clans. The thought of something like that happening terrified her.

'Calm down Sakura, you need to keep your head' Inner said, her voice filled with worry as she tried to mentally caress Sakura, bringing her back from her thoughts that just kept getting worse and worse.

Finally, Tsunade let out a sigh. "I believe you Sakura, but for your own safety I will like for you to keep this a secret for now. No telling anyone until we figure this out."

Tsunade rubbed at her forehead as she then stared Sakura straight in the eye. "I will be honest with you Sakura, we have not heard of such abilities since the age of Mokuton, and even then there have never been records of a Mokuton user being able to bring plants back alive, or being able to pass chakra through plants other than the wood that they bring to existence through the use of their chakra." Sakura blinked, biting her lip as she stuttered out.

"But…but only Hashirama is known to have been able to use wood release, and you are his only direct descendant. How…how is that possible Shishou…?"

"I don't know Sakura, there is only one known person who has the ability to replicate the use of wood release, but his was a manufactured occurrence. Sakura, you have to be truthful to me, have you ever come into contact with Orochimaru."

"Wha…no Shishou, I have never met him!" Sakura shook her head, fear clouding her mind. Orochimaru, the black stain of the village. Notoriously known for his inhumane experiments and one of the three Sannin. Sakura had never, and hoped to never, come even in close proximity of such a man.

"Do you know if your parents are in some way connected to the Senju clan?"

"No! Both my father comes from civilian background as far as is recorded, neither comes from a prominent clan, only my mother comes from a small samurai clan from the land of Snow." Sakura said, not holding anything back as she divulged everything.

The Senju clan was a withered tree to the greatness it once was, unlike the Uchiha clan that flourished though the years, without the great support of Hashirama and Tobirama, and without a kekei genkai of their own, they have lived in seclusion, their former glory as the greatest clans during the warring era now obscured form the less than stellar generations that came later on. Only Tsuande was able to bring the clan its former glory, though the fact that she was a senju was not well known, most likely due to her mysterious dislike of clans in general.

Even then, the Senju clan tried their hardest to keep their blood within the clan, much like the Uchiha and the Hyuuga clan, in the desperate attempt to hopefully birth another wood release child, like Hashirama. Due to this, the possibility of Sakura being an unknowing child of his descendants was small if not nonexistent.

"If so, it truly is unexplainable how you came to hold such a talent." Closing her eyes, Tsuande looked like the next few words she was going to say were more painful than sticking a needle through her eyes.

"Sakura, I'm sorry to say this, but I am putting you under the guardianship and protection of Itachi Uchiha." Sakura widened her eyes as she stared at Tsunade in disbelief.

"Wha-what do you mean by that?!" Sakura couldn't help but scream out, shock prevalent in her features.

"I'm sorry Sakura but seeing as Itachi already knows of your…ability, as well as classified information, he is one of the most capable to look after you."

"But Why?!" Sakura exclaimed, the question ringing out with a desperate hint in her voice.

Tsunade remained calm under Sakura's erratic gaze, but Sakura could see frown stress seemingly pouring out of her.

"I'll be as truthful as I possibly can with you Sakura, if you do in fact, have a sort of mokuton ability, you will be in danger. Not only from outside forces, but even from within the village itself. This kekei genkai has been coveted by many people, to the point that even a sort of knockoff of it is seen as a great treasure. We have to make sure you do not fall into the wrong hands, especially when you are as vulnerable as you are."

Sakura felt the stung at the reminder of how useless she actually was. A young girl who's only guardian is who knows where doing who knows what, who doesn't have any particular skills other than being a fledgling shinobi who could barely hold a kunai right, and most of all clanless with civilian background. Well, she wasn't exactly in the best of positions to protect herself, especially if there were stronger and more resourceful people coming after her.

Letting out a breath, Sakura tried in vain to calm her erratic heart as she stared up at Tsunade.

"Okay." She agreed, not like she had a choice to begin with.

"You will meet Itachi in the training field that has been reserved for you, from now on everyone is forbidden from entering that training ground except for you guys and Uchiha Shisui."

"Uchiha Shisui?" Sakura questioned, while she had heard of him, seeing as he was another young genius form the clan, as well as Itachi and Sasuke's cousin. He was known as the fastest ninja since the fourth Hokage, there are even some who say he is close to beating the speed that the yellow flash himself had.

"Yes, Itachi himself recommended that he come into the picture, he stated that Shusui would be better in helping you find out whether you had a mokuton-like kekei genkai, seeing as he had worked closely with someone who does. Now this is classified information, so I would like for you to keep such a fact quiet." Tsunade said with severity, making Sakura nod her head repeatedly in acceptance.

"These two will be in charge of training your new abilities, though such a fact will be kept quiet for now. Sakura, you must keep this to yourself as long as you can." Tsunade once more repeated, Sakura nodded her head, knowing how serious the situation was.

Though Mokuton? How could she, the daughter of two merchants who didn't have any gekei kenkai in their ancestry, possibly have developed such an ability?

"Okay, now you must hurry to the training ground, Itachi should be waiting there for you. From today forward you will be living with him, on the times that he goes to missions you will be guarded by Shisui, I will make sure that neither go on missions at the same time. In order to avoid suspicion, you and your team will go on missions outside of the village, when such a time comes you will have to stick close to Kakashi. He will be informed of the situation soon."

Sakura tensed at the reveal, for some reason not wanting her estranged sensei to know of this. While Kakashi-sensei was not exactly the worst of sensei, Sakura didn't exactly have full trust in him, mostly due to the feeling of abandonment that she had started to develop through the four months under his tutelage.

Tsunade saw her tensing, and sent her a sympathetic look, but there was nothing she could do. Kakashi needed to know this situation, especially when it came to the safety of one of his students.

"Okay Shishou, I will be leaving now." Sakura said, face looking lost as she inclined her head towards her shishou before leaving the office.

Tsuande sat there, feeling equally as lost as she took out a painted portrait of a young looking Hashirama from a drawer in her desk. "What am I to do, grandfather."

* * *

Sakura arrived at the training fields, slightly out of breath due to her rushing here, she didn't want to keep Uchiha Itachi waiting.

When she arrived, there was two people standing there rather than one. Due to the similar features, Sakura guessed that the older man with the short slightly messy hair was Shisui, he would be the only other one allowed in the training field.

Sakura walked in front of them, stopping their conversation as she bowed her head politely. "It's nice to meet you again Uchiha Itachi-can, and it is my pleasure to make your acquaintance, Uchiha Shisui-san."

"I see you're a polite little thing, Sakura-chan" Sakura slightly twitched at the impolite way of address, but she tried to ignore it as she gave a crooked smile. Her life was literarily in these two's hands.

"Show us what you did yesterday." Itachi said, voice void of all emotion as he stared at Sakura with expectation. Sakura gulped, looking away from the penetrating eyes as she nodded her head, trying and failing to not look like she was three seconds away from running away. She was the Hokage's apprentice, she must not show them any weakness, she continuously told herself.

'Calm down outer-chan, they are people, nothing more, nothing less.'

'Yes, two people that outrank me and are leagues above my level.' Sakura bit back, frowning as she tried to keep calm.

Letting out her chakra tentatively, Sakura directed it to the plant life before her.

It went towards it easily, blanketing as it penetrated the plant life network, intermixing with its own chakra.

"You were right 'tachi, she is able to make her chakra go into plant life." Shisui said in wonder, the most a person would do is maybe blanket plant life, sensing it with their own chakra, the most experienced sensors are able to see the small chakra of every plant life and animal, but this was the first time he saw someone who was able to go into a plant life chakra system. The chakra network in a plant was too simple, the smallest of inversions of outside chakra would completely overload the chakra of the plant life and cause it to wither and die. Only certain chakra trees from which they make the chakra paper to test natures were able to take in residue chakra, but that was only a small amount in numerous years,

"Now make it go into my own chakra system." Itachi said, and at that Shisui widened his eyes.

Foreign chakra into a living person's chakra system? Especially one that wasn't medical chakra? The chakra would automatically be repelled by the chakra of the person. It wasn't easy for chakra to go inside of another person's chakra, especially without direct contact. That's why healing such a difficult technique to master, it took a lot of control in order for chakra to go into another person's body, and if achieved, for the chakra to not cause damage and chakra burns from the interaction. Sensory was different, it was merely the widening of one's chakra in order to sense another's chakra, never could you enter another person's body with your chakra, it was impossible without contact!

Itachi must have seen his disbelief, as he turned back to Sakura and said, "No, do it to Shisui instead."

The little genin's eyes widened, and Shisui could see the surprise and hesitation there. Though, like a good little puppy, she nodded as Shisui sensed her chakra leaving the plants. Suddenly, he felt it, a strange sort of sensation. It was like something was weaving through him, his own chakra interacting with it as they intertwined to the point where he could just barely tell where the foreign chakra was. The thing was, it didn't feel foreign, it felt calming, fresh and comforting, like a cool wind in the summer or a warm blanket in winter. It felt just right, like it belonged there. Shisui didn't want the feeling to leave.

Suddenly the feeling was gone, and it took all that Shisui had not to whine as the feeling of pure euphoria left him, leaving him feeling empty and slightly disoriented.

"What the hell was that?!" Shisui exclaimed, looking at Sakura with both curiosity and caution. "Are we sure this could be a form of mokuton and not just a special chakra type?" Shisui asked, the depravity of the feeling soon fading as if it was never there.

Itachi turned back to Sakura, giving her more instructions. "Make your chakra go into the that tree then pull it back out." He said, pointing to a specific tree on their left. Shisui was confused, and even Sakura herself looked a little confused at the order.

Even then, Shisui looked closely at the tree in question, letting out his senses. He felt as the chakra got into the tree, flowing through its chakra networks as they intermixed, though he could still make out the difference between the tree's chakra and Sakura's own.

Then, as he felt her chakra slowly disappearing from the tree's own, Shisui saw a sight that made his eyes widen, the tree's branches moved, going towards the direction of Sakura as if possessed, it was minuscular, almost as if a wind was blowing its branches, and Shisui would have believed that to be the case if not for the stillness of the other trees.

"Can you move your chakra through the tree's own chakra system and make it move?" Shisui said, eyes critical as he looked at the tree.

Sakura's eyes widened; she must have never thought to have done so. She bit her lip and seemed to put on a face of concentration. Shisui once more focused on the chakra pattern of the tree, he felt Sakura's own chakra once more intermixing with its chakra, nothing happened.

Then, her chakra started to move towards the branches, with a spark of more chakra, the branch suddenly moved, as if pulled forward by a force. Shisui could feel a considerable drop of Sakura's own chakra, most likely used up due to the effort, but Shisui couldn't make himself care.

She had done it. She had controlled a tree that was not created by herself.

Shit. Yamato was going to have a fit.

* * *

Mayeevee: That's all folks, for the last bit with Shisui's POV, I just wanted to add a little context over how this is not too commonplace, seeing as Sakura isn't as knowledgeable on that part, as well as for some insight on how others see Sakura's abilities. Now Sakura won't be overpowered pow pow take out all the bad guys with a wave of her hand kind of person. She will have set backs, much like most kekei genkai have, and she won't exactly know how to control it straight away, the part with the branch is practically as far as she can go as of now, so unless smacking someone with a branch is deadly enough, Sakura will have to grow and bloom into her powers hehe. There is also the fact that Sakura's kekei genkai isn't too much like the mokuton, so the techniques that would help the average mokuton user will usually be useless for her, so tough luck there lol. Overall, Sakura is still going to be quite weak in the beginning, she will grow in terms of power, but it will be done in a gradual and usually slow passed way that might just have some people pulling their hair out in frustration, but again remember, she is a clanless genin who, while she did have some help (will be revealed later) didn't exactly take that help seriously and mostly just focused on fitting in and looking pretty for the boy. That isn't to say she will be useless though, but she won't reach the boys' level without a bit of blood sweat and tears in the way.


	3. Nurture

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sometimes all that is needed for a flower to bloom, is earth water, and a little nurturing.

Sakura felt her chakra drain considerably from the effort, something that is quite foreign to her, seeing as that her chakra control was nearly perfect so while she had very little of it, she would usually get quite a use of it. Not this time though, it the tree, which felt comforting with her chakra intertwined with its own, suddenly started resisting, as if confused about what Sakura wanted it to do. The weirder thing though, was how _easy_ it complied afterwards, as if a revelation of “ah, why didn’t you say so earlier”. While her chakra was used up quite a bit, it felt almost natural to have the tree follow her orders, and the tree seemed to _preen_ at being able to please her.

‘I must really be going mental if I’m starting to personify a tree.’ Sakura thought to herself quite deadpanned, wanting nothing more than to smack her head in an effort to get her sanity back.

‘ **Seeing the weird shit that has been happening recently, trees having feelings doesn’t seem all that off.’** Inner said towards a distraught Sakura, patting her head.

Sakura glared at her inwardly, though outwardly she was still looking at the two Uchiha’s before her, who were studying the tree in closer proximity that they had been in the beginning. “Okay let’s try this.” Shisui muttered, grabbing something from his pocket.

“Make this grow.” He then said, holding out a handful of seeds. Sakura gave him a confused look, looking at the seeds in front of her.

“If you truly have the mokuton, you should be able to make this grow.” Sakura wanted to hit something, how the hell was she supposed to know how to make this grow?

Seeing the lost expression on Sakura’s face, Itachi sighed, which made a twinge of guilt in her gut. Yeah, this isn’t going to go that well is it?

“From the restricted scrolls we have of Hashirama’s kekei genkai it is said that he mixed both water and earth chakra in order to make plants grow, try doing the same.” Now Sakura really wanted to cry. Weren’t they asking too much from her? Mixing two elements? How the hell did she even begin??

Though seeing their expectant eyes, Sakura could only swallow thickly as she closed her eyes once more. ‘Okay Sakura, you can do it, just…um maybe wing it? Do a Naruto? No, you have to find a way to mix the two signatures. Okay you have both water and earth natures already! So, this should be a piece of cake, right?!’

Seems like no, as Sakura trued to bring out earth chakra it would mold over her, slowly forming in her hands and feeling muddy and stretchy like clay, almost as if she could mold it into whatever she wanted, but it would take quite a bit of pressure and dominance. Then when she tried to bring the water to join it, it was as if the earth would just stop still, like a giant rock, not moving as the water seemed to wash away the earth and flow inside her, easier to move around than earth but harder to get a good hold of, as if slipping through her fingers.

She tried again and again, but the more she tried the more frustrated she became. The earth chakra would move too slowly and would get stuck at times. The water chakra moved too wildly and is hard to get a good grip on. Just as she felt tears of frustration forming on her eyes, she felt a hand on her back. “Hey, its okay, you just need practice, I imagine that trying to bring two different chakra natures together would be quite difficult.” Shisui said, an embarrassed laugh coming out of his lips as he rubbed the back of his head in apology.

Sakura bit her lip, lowering her head as she tried to keep strong. “I apologize for being unable to accomplish your requested task.” She said, sad that she had failed so early on. There, you see Sakura, always the useless one, you can never do things right.

“Hey hey its fine little cherry-chan, I shouldn’t have suddenly given you a hard task out of the get go, its okay that you need time to figure it out, actually I would be more worried if you got it right off the bat. I’m sure you’ll get the hang of it in time.”

Sakura looked up, a thankful look on her face as she sighed. “Well its about time to get going anyways. You need to get situated in your new place little lady.” Her eyes widened, Shisui was right! She needed to get some of her stuff packed before she was able to live with the other Uchiha.

Sending a discreet look over her new house mate, Sakura jumped slightly at the sight of him staring straight at her. His eyes held the same emotionless stare they always had since she met him, and she was tempted to have her chakra go through his network to find out how exactly he was feeling. Though she knew not to, it would be terribly rude of her to do so and she knew that Itachi could feel her chakra invading him.

Hence, she merely looked away, a blush making its way to her cheeks as she tried to stomp it down. She would be rooming in with a person she had no knowledge of, what the hell was Tsunade-shishou thinking?

Sakura wanted to cry at the embarrassment that filled her, still she needed to keep strong. She couldn’t have them looking down at the Hokage’s apprentice, that was just not worth it.

“I am currently situated in a house not too far from the Hokage tower, not many know about it and its protected at all times by discreet genjutsus and traps.” Itachi said, Sakura wondered when it had been that he moved out of the Uchiha house but seeing how closed mouth Sasuke had been about his big brother some months ago after Wave, she had reason to believe it was around then. In the beginning she had thought the experience cause Sasuke to be a bit more closed off, and less prone to talking of his idolized brother, but now she thought a bit different about the reasoning.

Deciding it better not to probe, as again this will be the man she will be sharing a house with and hence not someone she would like to make an enemy of, she merely nodded her head, staying silent for the most part. Most of her brain was still trying to think of a way to make the plant grow from the seed, but overall, she didn’t have a clue as of right now.

“So let’s go to your house Chibi-chan, we’ll help you in taking everything you need to your new house.”

“Okay.” Sakura agreed, wincing slightly at Shisui’s use of nicknames. Chibi-chan? What the hell. She knew she was short compared to the two adults, and her pink hair and face full of baby fat didn’t help in making her look older, but she was in no way a chibi!!

Pushing her annoyance and embarrassment back, this is a highly skilled Uchiha, Sakura, and your new instructor, don’t make enemies, she merely started walking out the training grounds, the other two Uchiha’s following behind her.

“What will others think if they find out I’m rooming in with you Itachi?” Sakura suddenly asked, the thought coming to her head. She would rather not find out how Sasuke is going to react to her rooming in with his highly regarded brother.

“There is a seal that is inside the house doorway, Hokage-sama gave us a seal to place on your skin which will teleport you inside the house premise. Only you, Shisui, Tsunade-sama and I have that specific seal.” Sometimes Sakura forgot that Tsunade’s granduncle was the Second Hokage, who not only mastered ninjutsu, but also seals, and friends with one Jeriya, another seals master. Of course, she had this in her disposition.

Sakura bit her lip as she thought once more how lucky she was to be in the tutorship of such an influential person. All the more reason to not look back in front of the two Uchihas, she needed to make her mentor proud.

Once they made it out of the training field, the two Uchihas along with Sakura made their way quickly through the rooftops until they made it to the rooftop of her apartment building, whereas they discreetly made their way inside of her apartment with an effort to be seen by as little people as possible. Though this was the civilian section of Konoha, so nobody really paid any mind to them.

Sakura looked around her small apartment, biding it a silent goodbye as she invited the two Uchihas a seat, silently thankful that she made sure to clean the apartment as much as she had time for.

“Would you care for something to eat? I have leftover dangos and green tea if you will like.” Was it just her imagination or did Itachi-san just perk up at the mention of dango? She must really be going mental.

Shisui, who for some reason seemed to be hiding a smile, merely nodded with a smirk. “If it’s not too much trouble Cherry-chan.” Sakura nodded as she quickly busied herself in warming up the five sticks of dango she had left and some green tea. Once that was done, she placed it on the table in front of the Uchihas before giving them a small smile. “There you go, I’ll go pack now, I won’t be long.”

Before she could move, Itachi suddenly held up what looked like a scroll. “A sealing scroll for your things, merely use your chakra to place what materials you need in there, there is a limit so don’t place too much, only your necessities.” Sakura stared wide eyed at the scroll, she could never afford such a commodity, sealing scrolls were quite expensive and she had not really even seen any up front. She knew how to use them thanks to the Academy just in case, but never had the chance to use one.

Nervously taking the scroll, Sakura smiled at Itachi in thankfulness. “Thank you, Uchiha-san.”

Shisui, who for some reason was grinning widely, chuckled slightly as he said loudly, “Why oujo-chan, just call us by our names, we’ll be spending much time together and it’ll get confusing if you call us both by our last names.”

Sakura blushed darkly, but nodded her head as she tilted her head slightly in thankfulness for the permission. “If it’s all right for you Shisui-san.” Shisui nodded eagerly, patting her head lightly, causing Sakura to become stunned for a minute. “Thanks cherry-chan.”

“Stop with your games Shisui.” Itachi muttered darkly, glaring slightly at his cousin. Shisui merely grinned, sticking his tongue out slightly. “You’re no fun Tachi-chan.” Itachi merely twitched but said nothing more as he looked back at Sakura expectantly, seeming to say ‘what are you waiting for’ with his eyes.

Jumping slightly, Sakura bowed her head in a silent apology for keeping them waiting before leaving to her room. She was a little dazed, she couldn’t help but think that Itachi and Shisui acted a little like her own teammates.

‘Wonder if I’ll fit in with them as well as I do with Team 7.’ Sakura thought bitterly, biting her lip as she started picking out the little clothes she had left after doing some much needed cleaning out of her more girly choices of clothing. She disregarded her vanity and make up and instead made sure she had all her weapons and sharpening tools. She then put in her womanly necessities before closing the now slightly filled scroll. She could always come back some day and get anything if she needed it, Sakura thought to herself. Her apartment had been paid for 10 months in advance like it always is by… _her_ even if she never really came here anymore, so Sakura didn’t need to worry about that at the moment.

Thinking about that person, Sakura felt her spirit dull slightly as she held back tears.

‘ **We should get going Saku.’** Inner said, looking concerned at Sakura. She merely nodded, pushing her tears back as she walked out of her room to a silently laughing Shisui, a stoic Itachi, and an empty plate.

Tilting her head in curiosity as to why the older Uchiha was openly trying to hide his laughter, Sakura shook her head as she cleared her throat. “I’m done, I apologize for the wait.”   
  


Shisui perked up, no longer laughing but instead smiling brightly in amusement as he gave one last amused glance at Itachi before turning to Sakura. “Okay then Pink-chan, let’s head out.”

Standing up and walking to her, Shisui walked over to Sakura and opened a scroll in front of her. “Put some of your blood on here and the seal will appear on your body, now this seal works long distances, but it takes up a lot of chakra so its advised to only use it whilst inside the village, preferably as close to the house as you can. Especially since you have such little chakra, no offence Cherry-chan.”

“Non taken.” Sakura responded, though it did cause a twinge inside of her, she knew that while her chakra control was nothing to scoff at, she had pretty shallow reserves compared to the average shinobi. That was something she really needed to work on.

Biting her thumb, Sakura let the blood drip on the scroll, the seal shined slightly before a seal appeared on top of her hand, seems like she will have to wear gloves more often now.

“Now place chakra into the seal to activate it.” With that Shisui was gone in a moment’s notice, almost as if disappearing from existence. Sakura did as told and felt a great drain in her reserves, almost all of her chakra being sucked up by the seal. Shisui was right, if she used this seal anywhere but Kanoha she would arrive on the other side dead, if it activated at all.

One moment she was in her apartment building, the next she was in the walkway of a nice traditional house. There was a place to put your shoes by the doorway, and there was a hallway leading to the inside of the house. Itachi appeared next to her, nodding to her before taking his shoes off and walking inside of the house, Sakura fumbled with her own shoes before following behind him.

They walked right into a living room, where Shisui was lazily sitting down on the sofa. “I’ll be heading to the Hokage Tower to turn in this scroll back to Tsunade-sama, be sure to show her around Tachi-kun.” Itachi merely hummed in agreement as Shisui gave Sakura a small wave before flickering away.

Itachi looked back at her before starting to walk, Sakura quickly followed. “This is the kitchen, I usually have it filled but there are times where I will be gone on missions, Shisui usually forgets to buy food so it will be your duty to make sure there is food when he is in charge. Shisui lives with his family at the moment, but at the times I am gone he will be rooming in one of the guest room to keep an eye on you.”

Sakura nodded, still not believing that she will be sharing this space with the two Uchiha, how the hell was she going to deal with this.

Before she went into an existential crisis, Itachi continued to the tour outside, where she found a small garden with a peach tree right in the back. “If there are any plants you will like to plant feel free to, I am the one who usually takes care of the garden, it is your option to help out.”

Sakura was caught unawares, Itachi Uchiha gardened? What the hell?

Once more before she could question the facts of the universe, Itachi went back inside and to the back of the one-story house, where four doors sat in the hallway, adjacent to each other.

“The first room to the left is mine, the second room after is yours. The two right rooms are guest rooms. Now due to the secrecy, the only other person allowed is Shisui, so no one but him may come inside the house.” Sakura nodded once more, once more wondering if her new ability was worth all this effort. Not likely, especially if she couldn’t even get the damn seed to sprout. Itachi turned to her then, his gaze as blank as ever. “Any questions?” Sakura shook her head.

“Then I’ll leave you to your own devices.” With those words, Itachi left her, going inside his own room to do who knows what. Sakura sighed before following suit, better put her things away so she could return the scroll.

* * *

Sakura was sitting in her new temporary bed, looking at the seeds in front of her, they were the same seeds that Shisui had given her. She frowned slightly, wondering what it was that she was doing wrong, but once more she could not get the damn things to grow, sighing, Sakura flopped.

Seeds needed water and earth to flourish, though mostly water. Come on Sakura, use that big head of yours.

Thinking slowly, Sakura felt her chakra go into the seeds, feeling inside as she felt the little pings of life from inside the shell. She thought about it more.

They needed earth, and water. Earth.

She let the earth chakra go through her, dominating and thick, but as she thinned it out and let it go through the seed, she felt it mold slightly around the seed, solidifying ever so slightly.

And water.

She felt her water chakra, free and ever flowing, never stopping. It ran though her fingers, refreshing as it flowed inside the seeds, giving them its life water.

When Sakura opened her eyes, she saw that nothing had changed, the seeds were still unborn. What was she doing wrong?

* * *

The next day Sakura skipped breakfast, partly to try and figure this out before the team meeting today in an hour, and partly because she might be hiding from a certain Uchiha next door, she still felt his chakra signature next to her room, him making no effort to hide it, but she still didn’t want to try and get out in case he decided to go out of his room and go to the kitchen at the same time as her.

Looking at the seeds in front of her, Sakura thought for a moment.

She tried the same steps again and again before calling it quits, seeing as that her team meeting was set in the morning, but knowing Kakashi-sensei, he was going to appear sometime later.

There was a bathroom inside of her room, so after refreshing herself, she quickly put on her training outfit, this time wearing the vine one. Braiding her hair into two braids, she put on her forehead protector on its usual spot atop her head. Finally, she put on some black fingerless gloves before going out her room.

Just as she was about to walk out the door, Itachi appeared next to her, causing her to jump and bite back a startled scream. “When leaving activate the seal again, it will bring you a bit away from the house but not so far that you will drain too much chakra.” Itachi said, Sakura nodded. “Once we teach you the Body flicker, you may use that to leave the house instead.” He informed her, Sakura perked up at that, she was going to learn the body flicker?

Before she could even utter a thank you, Itachi was gone, this time she couldn’t feel him from inside the house. Uttering a thank you to the empty space in front of her, Sakura activated the seal on her body.

It felt like an out of body experience, one moment she was in front of the door, the next she was outside on an alleyway with half her chakra gone.

Cursing the need for secrecy, Sakura hoped Kakashi was either late enough for her to replenish her chakra reserves or had something planned that didn’t require that much chakra.

Deicing to save what little chakra she had left, Sakura made her way through the streets of Konoha, buying an apple from a vendor as a small breakfast snack.

When she finally made it to Team 7’s training ground, she was met with one shocked face, one emotionless but slightly shocked face, and a half smiling face.

“Sakura-chan! You’re later than Kakashi-sensei!!” Naruto exclaimed in surprised, which was understandable since Sakura was usually the first one to training. Sasuke merely hummed, but there was clear irritation in his gaze.

Sakura blushed, rubbing the back of her head, she didn’t notice she had taken so much time trying to figure out how to grow the seeds. “I’m sorry, I was caught up with something. It won’t happen again Kakashi-sensei.”

“Maah Sakura-chan, don’t worry too much about it. Just try not to let it happen again.” Sakura twitched, says the one who is always late.

Though the slight gleam in his eyes, and the way he was extra observant over her, made Sakura remember that Kakashi-sensei _knew_. That thought made Sakura’s nerves rise.

“Now today we will be doing some one on one sparring. Naruto you’re against Sasuke, Sakura you’re with me.” Naruto cheered, quickly takling Sasuke as the two started a full out brawl, which usually ended with a lot of smoke from Naruto’s clones and some fire courtesy of Sasuke’s ninjutsu.

Sakura was slightly perturbed, usually when Kakashi did sparring, Sakura would sit on the sidelines, she was rarely asked to spar with the boys, usually because either Sasuke beat her too quickly for her to even make a move, or Naruto kept it going for too long due to the fact that he didn’t want to ‘hurt Sakura-chan!’. Both made her see how truly useless she was.

She should have seen this coming, when Kakashi made sure that both Naruto and Sasuke were both preoccupied and that no one was listening, he turned his one eyes to her, half-crinkled in a fake smile.

“So, Sakura, I was informed of your new…umm… _ability_. How is it going so far?” Ah so this was what it was, he just wanted to know more about the mysterious unlocked could-be kekei genkai she seemed to have stumbled upon. Sakura held back a sigh as she shrugged her shoulders.

“Nothing much, I’m trying to learn how to make seeds grow.” Sakura mumbled, her head tilting downwards, She was still frustrated at the thought that she couldn’t do it. What if this was all just a misunderstanding, what if she didn’t even have the First Hokage’s kekei genkai, then all of this would have been for nothing!

Kakashi merely nodded, patting the top of her head which, instead of comforting like Shisui’s pat had felt, it felt more condescending coming from him. Like a ‘should have known better’ kind of pat. Sakura again pushed down the urge to jerk away from his hand as Kakashi hummed in thought. “Well, don’t get too caught up on it.” He then turned around and looked back at the boys, who were now sporting quite a variety of bruises and were still on top of one another trying to pin the other down.

“Now now boys, I said sparring. Not whatever you guys are doing. Please keep that kind of wrestling behind closed doors.” Two shouts of “Kakashi-sensei!” Where heard as Kakashi walked towards her supposed teammates.

‘Don’t get too caught up with it? What did he think that this was all a fraud, that I didn’t really have a kekei genkai?’ Sakura felt tears trying to spill from her eyes.

‘No! I’ll show them, I’m not a fake!’ With that Sakura spent the whole the whole training time in her head, trying to figure out different ways to make those damn seeds sprout.

Suddenly, just as training was about to end, Sakura had an epiphany. Just as Kakashi-sensei vanished from sight, Naruto was heading over to Sakura in order to once more ask her out for lunch, and Sasuke was hiding a wince as he prepared to deny one of her many attempts to ask _him_ out for lunch, Sakura suddenly screamed out a “that’s it!” before running off. Naruto and Sasuke looked at each other, both wearing puzzled expressions on their faces before Sasuke shook it off and scoffed, walking away.

“What the hell is wrong with Sakura-chan today?” Naruto questioned before also leaving, deciding to head off to Ichiraku’s to get some ramen anyways.

* * *

Sakura didn’t even notice when she more than half of her chakra once more drained due to the seal activating, she didn’t notice Shisui’s shocked expression or even Itachi’s mildly curious if not slightly perturbed expression as she ran though the living room, half reminded to take off her shoes on the doorway. She ran inside her room, where the seeds sat on top of her bedside drawer.

She grabbed them, letting what little chakra she had go through them. Seeds needed earth, so she had some earth chakra go into them. They needed water, so she filled them with slight water chakra.

But most of all, they needed nurturing.

So, Sakura let her natural, unadulterated chakra fill the seeds, letting it go through the seeds and feel their weak chakra signature answering her call. She pushed her chakra through them, feeling her chakra slowly becoming part of their own as the seed seemed to go through weeks of growing right in front of her eyes, a small sprout appeared, roots growing out of the bottom as the seeds grew and grew before a bud appeared then a flower blossomed in front of her, a white iris.

Knocking was heard on the door, a loud “Hey Sakura, you alright in there.” Sakura walked towards the door in a daze, opening it as a splitting headache banged inside her head but she didn’t _care she did it!_

Showing off her work like a prize, Sakura barely managed to catch Shisui’s gaze of wonderment before the exhaustion hit her.

All she heard next was a startled “Sakura!” before everything went dark.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Welp here we are, chapter three. Sorry it came out a little later than expected, I started a few new stories and ended up accidentally putting this one to the side! T-T Anyways in this chapter, Sakura's mindset is a little worked up, so while Kakashi didn't mean to sound mean spirited, that's how she took it. Again I'm not trying to set team 7 as the bad guy, they just need a little (a lot) of talking, maybe group therapy, and some more bonding. Sakura just doesn't feel capable enough to be part of them, and so she projects a lot of her self-doubt on others. That isn't to say that Kakashi isn't partly to blame, along with Naruto and Sasuke, but they aren't totally culpable. The four of them need to heal, and get through some issues they have. 
> 
> Itachi and Shisui are starting to grow on me, especially Shisui he's a ray of sunshine, and I fell in love with him from Itachi's book so I'm giving him quite a bit of love here lol. 
> 
> Finally, Itachi and the Uchiha Clan will be discussed later, but just know that there is a reason he isn't with them at the moment, and the reason might make a few of you happy and a few of you screaming for my head. 
> 
> Welp hope you liked it, and hopefully you didn't think it was too rushed with Sakura having that epiphany, I just need her to figure something things out before the Chunnin exams, and there is so little time before then, so here you go. Don't worry though, the hard part is only beginning ❤️


End file.
